This Is It!
by Kazizuma
Summary: It seems like hell on earth when suddenly Special Ops soldier Jacob Smith is thrown into a struggle against a vicious enemy that could bring the very existence of mankind to a halt. Will he survive this onslaught or will he fall, like the others?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

FEAR

It was almost too dark to see anything, at least for anything not wearing a Military grade BioMechanical suit. Though that wasn't many, my team and I were the only ones with that kind of equipment and seeing in the dark was as simple as thinking about it, which was all you had to do to activate it. The suits were capable of a lot of impressive things. It greatly increased the wearer's speed and strength, Hearing and sight were amplified, the wearer could see up to 300 meters as if it were right in front of his face. Could hear a pin drop over the sound of a fully automatic G45. Sounds special right? Your damn right, these were standard issue for soldiers of my caliber and the rest of my squad, which were a class above all else.

We had been sent on this mission to check a disturbance in a small mining community, the community had been found deserted, though there was evidence of some sort of struggle, as they told us in the debreifing, the town was trashed, there were signs of houses being broken into and automobiles crushed. They were able to get one more thing out of the Regulars they dropped off into the town before their Radios went dead and they flatlined, The town was almost painted in blood.

We didn't get any feedback on the Visual equipment built into their helmets so we couldn't possibly know how bad it looked, so I wasn't exactly swayed to ask questions then, though I did find it kind of strange that each of their signatures flatlined instantaneously and all at the same exact time. Every single one of them are considered KIA, all twelve members that were split into two teams. We were dropped in low and quick, about Twelve klicks north of the community, on a D-19, Light airborne infantry transport, Prowler class, at approximately 22:00. From there we made the march to the establishment in the dead of night so as to avoid any sort of detection from any type of hostile force.

We reached a bluff overlooking our destination at 02:00, from there we surveyed the town for several minutes through our HUD that provides an optic 5x zoom.

We were composed of a team of four. That was the suspected number of members nessecary for a stealth mission. Meant to infiltrate and eliminate the enemy force. Thats how high we were held in regard by our superiours, we always went in quickly and quietly and we were always deadly efficient.

Chimera team leader gives the order to move into town, so we go. It takes us 15 minutes to reach the outskirts of town, there are no vehicles traveling out of the community and there were none entering due to the military road block, some 40 klicks back. the streets were deserted as we make our move, sticking close to cover and the buildings on the sides of the street, we were nearly invisible in the darkness that surrounds us. street lights flicker and illunimate the sidewalk and roads and large, puddles of blood but never did a single member of chimera spot a body.

Its not long befor we reach the center of the town, the speakers in my helmet crackle to life with the sound of Chimera team leader's voice. "this town is dead." He said with an obvious tone of disappointment in his voice. "Hold position." Ill radio into base and tell them that whoever raided this town is long gone." My radio shuts off with a click and silence joins me once again in my helmet.

Chimera team had taken up position at each point in the intersection. On my HUD (Heads Up Display) I got a few blips informing me that Chimera 2 and Chimera 4 had gone into their own personal chat and I wondered if I would join them when suddenly the speakers crackle and Chimera 1's (team leader) voice spoke over it with some urgencey." Look alive chimera team, I caught something on my sensors."

I glanced up to see the acknowledgement lights of the team blink on and off, so I responded with my own acknowledgement, merely thinking it and the suit responds. "Its just one... Its moving pretty fast... It'll be in the middle of the intersection in ab..." He grew silent suddenly, and remained that way for several seconds. Finally the speakers sounded again and his voice was uneasy. "Its gone... It just vanished... Maybe it was an equipment malfunct..." Thats when whatever "It" was darted from out of the darkness and slammed into Chamira 1 with the force of a train.

That knocked him back, into and through the corner of a building on the street, sending debris out over the road, along with him. He rolls to a stop in the middle of the steet and only has enough time to look up before the thing is on him again. Now that it had stopped I could get a better look at it. I saw that it was slightly humanoid, with a skull that fanned out and then spiked behind it, a long, bonelike blade that attatched to each arm, extended all the way down its long, bony forearm, and even further past its hands.

Its back was covered in a metallic looking skin, that continued down, protecting all of its vital points. It was several heads taller than me, and I was the tallest member on my team at a height of 6' 7". Though the most distingiushing characteristic that I noticed was the high pitched cry that it sounded as it attacked Chimera 1. It was high pitched and most of all... Disorienting. "GOOOOOO!" It cried out as it set to ripping our squad leader to sheds.

It was like watching an orange being peeled, only it sounded much softer and grotesque. He flatlined on my HUD before we could even react. Chimera 4 was the first to react, his voice blared out of the speakers and into my ears over the sound of the constant cutting and lacerating noises as it's claws cut clean through the Bio-Mechanical suit. "Chimera team! Engage!" Snapped from the strange mezmerizing effect of complete shock, we lifted our Supressed G.45s up and fired on the creature's back, each of us holding the trigger to unleash as many rounds as possible into the thing.

Our bullets hit their mark, but stop dead as soon as they do, it seemed to be some sort of armored plating on its back. We all emptied our clips into the creature's back, all 25 rounds each and recieved no results. It didn't even so much as glance back at us, it only continued skinning our team leader with swift yet brutal strokes.

"Damn it!" Exclaimed Chimera 2. "Maybe it has a weak point!" With that he takes a step forward, towards it. He never even set his foot down before another one darted out from nowhere, deadly silent, and snatches Chimera 2 up by the throat. His voice, strangulated due to the being's powerful grip was faint as he raised his rifle and pointed it at the creature's face. "Piss o.." In that moment, faster than my eyes could track, the thing cut upward and through Chimera 2's elbow. It was severed cleanly, as if it were paper and Chimera 2 cried out in pain before it pulled him back and then hurls him through a shop window.

In that moment, I and Chimera 4 had a clear shot, we took it, opening up and firing as many rounds as the weapons could possily produce. It moved too quickly though, vaulting forward, through the shop window, undoubtedly, after Chimera 2, I heard him scream harshly one last time over the radio before he flatlined on my HUD. Noises of rapid cutting and slashing sound from inside the shop.

"SH... SHIT!" Chimera 4 yelled out as he turned and started to sprint away from the slaughter. I turned and accompanied him, there was no way we were going to win against these things with our present numbers.

We sprinted as fast as we possibly could down the street, moving with an intense speed towards the town's nearest exit. Thats when i heard it. "Goooooooooooooo!" It sounded from above and i knew that there was at least a fifty-fifty chance that I was its target, so I focused on the road and don't look back, which is the exact same thing Chimera 4 does.

Chimera 4 goes down beside me, knocked to the ground from the weight of the falling creature onto his back, the being, on the other hand, merely stops and tunrs around, putting its back to me as it raised its blade arms and prepared to do major surgery on Chimera 4's face, neck, and chest.

Adrenaline Rush. Implicated by the armor it causes me to make a really stupid decision. I turn to the creatures back and then start running. Its about to evicerate Chimera 4, who was holding his hands up in front of his face as he braced for death and thats when I jumped. I leaped up onto the creature's back, my empty hand flying up and latching onto the small handhold just behind it's skull, at the base of it's neck. Then I lift my weapon up, around then the being seems to notice me and glances over it's shoulder and makes that strange noise again before it stresses and four long spikes shoot out of its back. it looks like they are formed out of the metallic substance that protected it.

Each of the spikes seem to aim for each one of his limbs, two for his arms and then for his legs. I react as fast as i can and thankfully move most of my body so that they miss him... mostly. One spike is able to make contact, cutting into and completely through the backside of his shoulder. My adrenaline drowns out most of the pain, so I only feel a sharp twinge and that is not enough to distract him from his goal. I lift the weapon as high as I can and pess it to the bare skin of the creature, in between its protective plating and its head, around its shoulder.

It jumps slightly as it realizes the danger its in, but that isn't enough to save him now, I pull the trigger on the weapon and let out a lengthy burst of ammunition into the creatures vulnerable spot. It's blood sprays out of its new wounds as the bullets tear through it's skin, it also tears through the creatures throat and it chokes on it's blood as it emits that cry for the last time. I grind my teeth as I pull downwards, with my entire body, causing the spike to tear through the top of my shoulder, but I keep pulling down, my hold on the creature tight as it comes down with me. Then I swing out of the way and throw it down onto the street with as much force as possible.

My hand hangs loosely at my side, blood had already started to run profusely down it, but I couldn't worry about that now, I turned to Chimera 4 and threw my rifle aside, then reached out to him. He hesitated for a second, then his hand shot out and latched onto mine and I pulled him onto his feet. "Come on!" He yelled as I was pulling him up, no doubt his intention was to run as soon as he regained his footing though that was too bad, because as he came up, so did another creature's blade, straight up through the middle of his Diaghram and it continued to push through. Chimera 4's hands clutch at the blade, kicking his feet as he coughed up blood onto his Microphone, muffling his voice.

I had to jerk away, my eyes wide with surprise as the blade had not only speared through my teamate, but it had almost run through me as well. The being lifts Chimera 4 up off the ground, and swipes at me with its other blade, almost daring me to come after it and save my teamate. My hand drifts to my belt, the pistol there was beckoning me to use it, but then a click catches my attention, a glance upward at Chimera 4's hand showed me what it was. Chimera 4 was clutching a pinless grenade in his blood stained hand, his other hand shakily lowers down to his belt, for his combat knife.

He grasps it and pulls it out slowly, then my speakers crackle to life again. "Chimer... Jacob... Run..." My eyes narrow and then I give him a curt nod, like a salute out of respect and then I turn and do as I was told, as fast as I could too because that wasn't just any grenade, it was an advanced Fuel Air grenade. That would totally decimate more than half of this town. I sprint with no restrictions, my boots pounding against the pavement as I bounded towards the town's exit. Back behind me a scene was unfolding, Chimera 4 was still hanging in the air, holding both his knife and the Grenade.

The being lifts it's head and sniffs at Chimera 4 and thats when he decides to act, holding the knife, blade down he brings it around, as far as possible behind him. He gets lucky, and the blade sinks into the soft spot. The creature makes that sound, but it sounds anguished this time, it's pain distracts it long enough for Chimera 4 to pull itself around using the Knife holding and then tightens his fist on the grenade with his last bit of strength. "Damn your ugly!" He yells at it as he pulls his fist back and punches it in the face as hard as possible.

Though, all I hear over my Mic is "Damn your ugly!" then my entire visor goes white with the explosion and I feel my feet lift up off the ground as the force of the explosion picks me up and tosses me the rest of the way out of the town and into the forest nearby. I slam against a tree, having the wind totally knocked out of me, then I land and roll a bit. I want to take a nap, just go to sleep, but the thought of missing Chimera teams grand fireworks display in honor of their deaths keeps me awake. So I stand up, staggering back against the tree and look at the greenish red cloud as it rises up.

I breathe heavily, staring in admiration of the cloud when suddenly... I spot movement out of the corner of my eye, from around the sides of the town, hundreds more of the creatures and they were moving quickly towards my position. Damn.

I turn and start to run, through the forest, moving in and about through the tree and over downed logs, my boots were more muffled in the forest, but I had no idea what these things were capable of, they were already catching up to me, I could see them on my Sensors. I pull up a the radio line to base, and I get a female's voice, it was loud and tense. "Chimera actual! What the hell is going on down the.." I interrupt her, I didn't have the time to be bitched at. "This is Chimera 3! Requesting immediate evac!" I yell at her, stressing my words. Shes silent for several seconds and then finally her voice breaks through again. "Acknowledged Chimera 3, keep moving in your current direction for 15 Klicks, estimated time to evac... " A pause. "Ten Minutes." My eyes narrow and my teeth grind together. "Well, I need a boost then!" I focus and then my suit releases its adrenaline reserves and the only thing I can hear is my heart pounding inside my chest at an incredibly fast rate, my exhaustion and pain seem to just disappear and I will my legs to move faster.

I bound through the forest towards the evac site, dodging trees here and there, when suddenly, my sensors flash on and off, I had three contacts moving up behind me at twice my speed, but it was only 6 Klicks now, it felt like it had only been several seconds but really it had been several minutes instead. Those blips on my sensors were now slowing down, all except for one, it instead moved in front of me, then vanished at least forty feet ahead of my current position.

My eyes narrowed on the area ahead, then I tensed, and readied myself, my hands untightening from fists so that I could go into open handed combat if I had to. It wasn't long at all before I reached the area that the contact disappeared at, then as I made my way through it, It jumped out at me from behind a tree and I reacted with full force, I tensed my legs and then launched myself over the creature drawing the combat knife from my belt and then as I began a forward flip over the creature I held the Knife over my head, Clearing the creature's bladed arms that I hadn't even noticed were coming at me. Then as I began to fall behind it I loosed the knife at the target, and it flew straight, luckily, into the base at the back of the creatures skull, severing the Spinal cord.

I completed my flip and landed in a crouch, sort of roughly on the ground behind the being. I don't even pause for a second there, i'm off before the body can hit the ground. The female's voice sounds muffled in my ears but I hear it all the same. "Chimera 3, Four Klicks to go and Thirty-Seven seconds to dust off." I grind my teeth in annoyance, sweat was running down my forehead in droves, getting into my eyes and blurring my vision. My breathing is too heavy to respond to her, the adrenaline starts to wear off and I feel so tired, but for my life I convince myself to quicken my pace, though its really straining me. "One point five klicks to go and the Prowler is already preparing to lift off, where are you Chimera 3?" I notice that the two blips that had vanished were back again, and they were moving reeeaaaally fast, not to mention that they had brought friends.

I burst out of the forest and into the clearing, near a cliffside, where the Prowler was lifting off. I push myself for these last hundred or so feet, my hand dropping to my grenade belt. I pull from it two fragmentation grenades, by hooking my fingers into the rings and then pulling upwards, so as to not arm them. Then I give them another one, only this time it was outwards so that the pins were pulled free. They fly out to his sides and thud to the ground as soon as I hear several of those strange creatures tear out of the forest behind me.

Now i'm almost there and I think, now this is just a guess, that I have about half a second to jump onto that Prowler before i'm engulfed in flames, which is even harder than it sounds. So I do it.

I leap from the edge of the cliff just as the grenades go off, and the force of the explosion causes me to sail through the air, once again, very luckily, towards the Prowler, in fact right towards the hollow part in the middle for transporting troops... wait... Thats bad, cause at my rate i'd sail right through. Thats when it cathces my eye for about a second, a blip on my sensors, almost directly behind me. One of the creatures was jumping after me! my eyes dart to the Prowler, this was the bigger problem at the moment, then, my eyes snap to the Heavy rotary gun attached to the side, next to the loading area. Hoping for the best I reach out and grab for the handles over it as I sail past it.

I must be the luckiest guy in the world.

My hand finds and latches onto the handle and it causes me to swing around, into the loading area, thats when I press my thumb down on the rotating barrel control, causing the multiple barrels to start spinning and quickly. I thought that I might as well kill two birds with one stone. I swing about and thats when I see him, the creature is almost close enough to latch onto the prowler, so as I spin around, I grab onto the trigger handle and then aim appropriately, and open up, fully automatic, Three thousand rounds a minute, straight into the chest of that creature.

The force of the spray of ammunition causes the creature to stop, and continued application causes it to fly back, its chest was protected by a metallic coat as well, but the Rotary gun let out enough rounds and in a wide enough spray, that it hit most of the creatures weak points. Though still it wasn't enough to kill the beast, but the fall more than likely would. It plemmeted to meet the earth below, or so I suspected, I was too busy falling back against the hull and grabbing ahold of a safety brace as we flew to a safe distance.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

DeBreif

The breifing room was dark and drab, the only real light coming from the large screen at the head of the room, on it were displayed the gruesome images of my previous mission. I sat there, at the back of the room as the higher-ups went over the details, from there they brought in a group of scientists from a branch that I had heard of a few times. The Paranormal and Unnatural Research branch, which I had been called upon to do missions for once or twice in my life.

Their missions usually held nothing of interest, we went in, looked around, pretty much found nothing and then pulled back to base. They were just a bunch of overly obsessed middle aged people with white coats and a claim to knowledge, or so thats what we thought they were, but now we might just be able to use them. Though for now, I kept my eyes on the floor, and waited for them to come and speak to me. My shoulder had been patched up by a field medic in the few minutes that I had been on the Prowler.

"What the hell were those things, Sir?" He asked me that question at least three times, but I didn't answer at all, I just kept my head down as everything started to catch up with me. I had just witnessed the slaughter of my entire team, those were the men I had spent my entire life with, they were like family. I trained with them, fought at their sides, and now they had been massacred in almost a blink of an eye. Suddenly I find myself relapsing...

So quiet... Dark... Why was this happening to me? What did I ever do to deserve such a punishment. I had only approached this group of people so that I could ask them to maybe stop taking all of our food. I regretted my decision as a heavy fist strikes my cheek, causing my eyes to well up with tears. Why would they do this over such a thing? To a child no less? The blows continued to fall, and I could feel a tooth at the side of my mouth become dislodged by one of the forceful punches. As the taste of blood fills my mouth I make an attempt to look up at my tormentor, a grown man with a rag over his face as a makeshift mask, thats all I can see before another punch knocks my head back down.

I just want this to stop, the pain is unbearable and with each strike I feel like I might die, I start to lose conciousness but a sudden punch to my stomach causes me to lurch forward, against the restraints that held me against the tree they had strapped me too. Soon I can hardly think straight, the only thought that runs through my mind continuosly is how I desperately want this to end. when it seems like the man would never stop, there is a sickening crunch and the blows stop. I crack a swollen eye to see the man leaning back, his neck twisted awkwardly, with another person's hands on the back of his neck and chin.

He sets the now lifeless body aside and steps towards me, I try to speak, but I cannot. My head lowers and my eyes slowly close, the last thing I see before I black out are a pair of black combat boots.

I closed my eyes and my hands rose up to meet my head, and I held it there as the memories flashed through my head. I would sit, holding no account of time, feeling like I had been awake for days, maybe I could just... Close my eyes and rest a bit, the higher ups weren't calling for me yet, right? So I let my eyelids relax and with that comes the inevitable darkness, so inviting and seemingly comfortable. In no time i'm asleep.

An image explodes into veiw in my minds eye, its one of those creatures, and it screams that strange cry at me, thats when I wake with a start, the cry of that thing becoming the voice of on of the higher-ups. "Son?" His calm, kind voice broke through my nightmares and his hand shook me awake lightly. I look up, a bit of a greatful look on my face to this man who woke me from my nightmare. "Were sorry we made you wait, but you don't look like your in any condition to undergo questioning." He says after he retracts his hand and stands up straight. "All we need at the moment is the video feed stored in the uplink from your helmet."

I finally open my eyes a bit, and realize that a Higher up was speaking to me currently so I get up quickly and stand rigidly at attention. "At ease Son, you don't need to salute me after what you've done today, what you need is some rest." He raises up a hand and two MPs walk over from the entrance of the Briefing room. They had bewildered looks on their faces, then I realized that there was a clear veiw of the Screen from the entrance.

"These two men will escort you to your quarters, your dismissed." He said with a curt nod, then he turns to walk away. I wanted to ask him a few questions, like, how he and the others were going to deal with this, but sleep sounded way better than a conversation over the things that just slaughtered the only family I ever knew. Not to mention, the toss that the Fuel Air grenade gave me didn't really have the softest landing, so yeah.

I turn now to the MPs, who were staring at me in utter awe. I stared back, my eyes dull with exhaustion. I'm sure I didn't look the greatest right now, My armor had gone in for immediate repair so I was just wearing the close fitting mesh underlay, which was reinforced in all the vital areas. It was torn through the shoulder of course and my blood had dried over most of my chest and my neck. They eventually gathered themselves and then turned about and activated the sealed doors to the room with a high access security card. The electronic sealing door beeps loudly and slides open smoothly and the MPs don't hesitate to step away from me.

I follow behind them without a word and we makes our way through a system of hallways to a personnel lift, which we then board and go up several levels until we reach the surface. Which was agonizing because the awkward silence was rampant in that Lift. Finally my keen ears pick up the sound of a mouth opening and drawing in a bit of a breath, like the start of a question. I stop that with a quick "No." and were back to normal silence, like MPs are supposed to maintain. From there the Lift doors open and we walk through an open area before taking a right, where we were presented with a security door labeled 13 C-LEVEL these were my quarters.

Then the two MPs stand on either side of the entrance and I stepped up to the door this time, pulling my own security card off of my wrist and slipping it into the port. The port scans it and Identifies me, unlatching and sliding open with a metallic click. I glance over my shoulder and as I suspected, the MPs had skipped out... I think I intimidated them a bit.

I walked into the room, my eyes adjusting in an instant, so now it just had an air of gloom to it, but that didn't matter to me, my eyes were going to be closed anyways. I sit down on military cot and set my head in my hands for about the hundredth time and picture the scenes in my head again, even after I layed back and drifted off, they joined me one more time in my head before everything went black.

I drift into my memories again, to the time after I had woken from my severe beating by the man. I flinch as soon as I sit up, expecting another torrent of strikes, but they do not come, then my swollen eyes widen as I remember... That man was killed, but by who? I lift my head to look around, we were in a forested area, a small fire is going in the center of what appears to be a quick attempt at a campsite. "Your awake are you?" A deep voice says from behind the fire. I can't make out his face as i look at him due to intereferance from the light of the fire.

"Wh-Who are you?" I ask in a frightened tone, but then I realize how weak I sound like that, so I suck it up and repeat my question in a more solid voice. He chuckles at my attempt to sound unafraid. "Does that matter? I stopped those men from beating you to death." He lifts a hand up, and I realize he's holding a very large knife, sharpening it. i swallow hard, but I strengthen my nerves to ask another question, but he cuts me off. "Do you have a family kid?" At that question I lower my head and give the ground a depressed stare.

He is quiet for a couple seconds and then sighs. "I'll take that as a no..." He winces when he sees a tear roll down my cheek. Alright, so i'm crying, you would too if a band of rebels had basically slaughtered your family. He sheathes his knife and then pushes himself up. My eyes dart up and follow his every movement, still suspicious. He walks around the fire and then kneels down, putting an elbow on his knee as he smiles at me. "Would you like to have one?" He holds out a hand to me, and I stare at it, then, with another nervous gulp, I take his hand and suddenly my mind's eye is clouded by darkness.

Thats when the darkness lit up, and I was moving through a forest, which was dark, of course, as it was night and... I wasn't alone, when I started to look around I noticed that there was a tall, slender man walking beside me, with long hair and wild eyes, he was talking to me quietly, but I couldn't make out any of the words he was saying. Then they came from out of nowhere, seven strange creatures suddenly blocked our path. Then the vision darkened before I could get a better look.

An abandoned Mansion, it flashes into veiw, lit up by a large flash of lightning, but then my dreams are interrupted by a Siren. Blaring over the speakers was an alert, and from my experience it was the alert to Mobilize. My room door slides open and a Corporal jogs in, his breath is short and his eyes are wide. "Sir!" He shouts and stands at attention. "I've been sent to tell you to suit up and prepare for the upcoming battle, Sir!" My expression is one of confusion as I question him. "What battle?" He swallows and I can see the persperation on his forehead from his Anxiety. "The one taking place at Fourteen hundred hours!" I stand up and look at the digital clock next to the cot, I had been asleep for Eleven straight hours. I give him a look. "What location?" He hesitates, and then answers. "Sir... The city of Rancagua in Chile... There have been reports of widespread panic and Civil unrest... Some sort of rebel force has overrun the entire city and knocked out our means of communication." I walk over to the door and look out at the soldiers scrambling about.

"Rebels huh?" My eyes narrow as it becomes clearer to me. The guatemalen capitol was just a bit over 150 Klicks from the location that he and his squad had been in just last night. I turned to him. "Thank you Corporal, your... Dismissed." I say, just stressing the word Dismissed ever so slightly. He blinks at me and then nods. "Yessir." He says and then hurries out the door. I just couldn't bring myself to tell him that he had been lied to and that this was more than likely his last day in existence.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

No Hope

It was burning, the entire city of Rancagua was engulfed in thick black smoke as Flames burned through buildings and egulfed vehicles. The larger Infantry transport that flew alongside us, a TU-3 Kite class. It had a large decal on it's side no doubt attached by the carrier's pilot, it read BAT HAWK. It pulled away from veiw of my seat on my smaller personalized Prowler class vehicle, no doubt dropping low to release its load of troops it was carrying in its armored hull. For about the thousandth time I turn my head and look around the small hollow midsection on the Prowler and again, for the thousandth time curse silently over how they weren't ready for this.

Our transport teetered for a second as we hit some sort of turbulence and the new Chimera team recruits grabbed nervously for the braces on the hull. I shake my head and then say over the personal comm line that only our team shared. "Everybody ready your weapons and keep your Adrenaline reserves on standby." I said with confidence, this time we were prepared... I just hope it helped. A few hours before they had been breifed on the situation and knew what we were up against, all of the regulars below on the other hand had no clue.

Hence the team's nervousness, even with their training they didn't have the experience to take on something like this so soon, they saw in the video from my recent mission the damage that these things could do even with their advanced super suits. I make sure my G45 is fully loaded and properly set. Then our craft veers to the right as the pilot gets the order to take us in, so we go in, our vision is instantly clouded by the thick black smoke, so I give the order over the Comm to switch to thermal vision and keep their sight to the buildings around us for the time being.

Three acknowledgement lights blip on and off so thats when I switch to my thermal. There were extreme heat signatures coming from below us but all around us, in the extremelyt high buildings they were relatively cool, so this gave us a chance to examine the area for a focused assault. There was a sound of Civillian gunfire in the distance, my experience assessed the sound and told me that it was a Semi Automatic civillian issue Wasp. The Wasp was downgraded for civillian personal protection and could hardly be used for anything else, due to its extremely weak Firepower and insignificant range.

That pistol wouldn't stop one of those creatures even if the barrel was pressed against its weak point and several rounds exited the barrel at that moment. I sighed as I assumed the person using that weapon was very, very dead by now. A female voice crackled over my Comm as the new Chimera 3 opened a chat with me. "Sir?" She sounded just as nervous as she looked. "I couldn't help but catch that gunfire.. That was a-" I cut her off in the comm. "A Wasp, civillian issue, yes Chimera 3." I say with boredom in my voice, I don't even know why she pointed this out to me. "She hesitates, I couldn't see her face through her white visor, but I could tell by her tone that she was wearing a worried expression.

"So that means... Theres civillians still alive?" She asks, basically sitting on the edge of her seat with her eyes fixed on me. I think she was hoping that she could save some of the civillians... I don't think that was going to be possible, so I don't get her hopes up. I look back at her and remain silent for several seconds. "There were at least." I finally say in a dark tone and look back out to the buildings. The Comm falls quiet and we survey our surroundings as we pass by them. The city was unsettlingly quiet until the pilot chimed in over our personal Comm. He needed one as he was going to be running us around this city.

"Wear nearing the DZ, ETA Five minutes." And with that he shut off his link without another word. We take that as an alert to remove our saftey harnesses, so we do so. I give the team a lest second tip. "Today we'll be dropping in fast, make sure your weapons are ready and in your hands when you drop, I don't want to be caught off guard at landing. When you get close to the ground, I want you to use the emergency thrusters at back of your suits to slow down and make the landing less painful, I can't express how much I don't want a soldier with a broken ankle." After the comm link falls silent The prowler shifts its engines, slowing down and then the Pilot chimed in again.

"We've reached the DZ, please enjoy the sights and we hope you choose EPF airlines for all your travelling needs, that is IF you poor bastards make it out alive." He says in a grave yet joking tone. "Your just jealous you don't get any ground action." I reply matter of factly and he chuckles. "I'd rather not get the kind of ground action you guys are going to get." I hear a warning alarm go off as safety measures are removed from the loading area. Then he has the last word as a red light illuminates the hull. "Thank you, come again!" Suddenly there is a loud metallic clack and a hissing noise, then the floor falls out from under us.

We drop like rocks, due to our armor, it pulls us down at an intense speed and I feel like my stomach and my lungs are exchanging words. I hold my rifle over my head and look down as I fall. Unfortunately there were no flames where I was being dropped, so it blended in with the smoke and I couldn't even see it after I switched back to Regular vision. I could feel myself dropping faster and faster with each second and thats when I decide to hit the thrusters. I think it and I feel my Armor plating on my back heat up as the Thrusters activate and I slow down considerably. The ground comes into veiw and I deactivate them, figuring that this was a good distance to just fall. I land on my feet easily enough and then lower as I do so, absorbing the impact with my legs.

Before I think about anything else I had my rifle down and aimed ahead of me, my eyes were running over the surrounding wreckage and other fallen debris. The others had touched down close to me and we formed a Square of defense so that each of us could cover a direction. "I want everyone to maintain Radio silence." I say with a whisper. "These things can even hear our voices from inside our helmets." he three acknowledgement lights flick on and I return my attention to my surroundings.

As we stay crouched there, our guns combing the area, the objectives of the mission come in. The higher ups had intended us to move in first and soften up the opposition so that the main force could move in and commence the clean up. It would have been nothing if the opposition was Normal, but they were far from it. The objectives appear at the side of my HUD and I take in the orders, we were to head Southwest to a building complex that had been scanned thermally Via Sattelite and it apparently had an unnatural heat signature. We were to investigate and unfortunately, we had to do our jobs. I held my hand up, so that my team could see the On Me Signal that I was giving them, eventually they all formed up behind me, coovering my flank and thats when I began moving, I stayed low and moved to the side of a wrecked vehicle and they followed, two moving up on either side of me and one staying behind.

Chimera 2, the one in front of me, lifts his rifle barrel over the hood of the car and scans the forward area, when he spots nothing his acknowledgement light blinks on and off and I slip around him, still low and move to a doorway on the right of the street. It takes several more minutes of these low profile actions, so that just in case these creatures were still around we wouldn't be spotted easily. Were almost on the street wich the entrance of the building is and I peer around the corner and what I see causes me to jerk my head away from the corner as quickly as possible.

Around that corner was a Creature. Its back was to me when I looked around thankfully, but it was much too close for comfort, my heart started to race as my hand rose slowly to signal to the others to stop. This thing's hearing, I knew, was uncanny, so I would take this kill, letting the soles of my padded boots sit down carefully on the pacement, ever more softly with each step towards the being. Its head shifts around in multiple directions, very quickly, as if it were having random twitching fits, accompanying the movements with a short noise every time. Sounding like. "Gew... GeGew...GewwwwGew..." I would have laughed if I didn't know how incredibly evil these things could be.

I noticed that its back metallic plating had been formed into spikes for defensive measures, unfortunately for him, his defense would be his greatest weakness. I make my move when i'm satisfied with my disnace to him, which was barely more that Three feet. I jump up, moving with lightning speed, placing my right boot on one of the two bottom spikes and then I lift my left foot and bring it up onto one of the three upper spikes. At this time the creature becomes aware of me, making another sound. "Gewww?" Hinting I hope, to confusion. Now that i'm on proper level with its head I raise my right boot up and place it on one of the more dominant head spikes extending back from the creature's skull and then bend foward, grabbing it's chin firmly. By now its realizing whats going on and it attempts to stop me, arcing its blades upward towards me.

Too late. I push on that dominant head spikes with all of my body weight while using that force appropriately to strengthen the pull on its chin with my hand. It's head comes about with a sickening crack, and easily too. I can actually see the surprise in it's eyes as it's body falls forward with my weight. I set the foot I used for the kill down first and hold onto the creature's head to slow it's fall so it's not too loud.

Now that he was out of the way we could move into the building, I raise my rifle, which had been in my right hand's grasp the entire time, and give the signal to move forward. When we finally reached the entrance we breached using the proper procedures and took up formation inside. Objective complete, it marked itself off on my Hud and I gave a little sigh of releif. Thats when a movement catches my eyes. Standing in the hallway, directly in front of us was another creature, only this one, was looking directly at us. This was going to be a looong day.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sudden Realization

I was the first to react, while the others stared in awe at this large, grotesquely deformed figure in front of them. It tilted its head to the side as my suit injected me with the first round of Reserve Adrenaline. Two large cylinders just behind my shoulder blades spin suddenly, causing the needles to peirce my skin and then inject the Adrenaline in a vital point in my bloodstream. My heart begins to race at three times its normal speed and I Bark orders at my team before bolting towards the beast.

"Focus your fire on the face!" I don't have time to wait for their acknowledgement, this either worked, or it didn't. I continue to run towards the beast, as bullets streak past me and strike their mark. As the creature is now blinded I can make my move. It cries out in frustration as it tries to keep the projectiles from getting into its eyes by sheilding it's face. While running I feel for the switch on my G.45 that activated the Shotgun attachment on the lower part, under the barrel. Now it was time for the real action, the distance between the Creature and I closed as I took one last, lengthy stride and came to a momentary halt in front of it.

It must have seen my feet, because as soon as I came to a stop in front of it, it lashed out, fortunately for me I was prepared for agressive action. I leaned my upper body to the right and twisted to my left as a bone blade stabs the air where I had been standing a milisecond ago, it scrapes against my chest plate but otherwise no harm done. I on the other hand was about to do serious damage to the beast. I lifted the gun up so that the barrel pointed directly at it's face and I loosed a shell full of hell at it. It reeled backwards as the BBs tore at its facial plate and peirced it's eyes and went on through to its brain.

The force of the shot causes it to lift up off the ground, but not for very long, it begins to fall before I jump forward and slam my boot into it's chest, pinning it down against the ground. I then aim my weapon foward, down the hallway, to ensure myself that there are no other creatures ahead of me. I stare down the hall and the air around me is absent of noise other than the fires raging outside of the building. My eyes narrow and I lift my foot from the creature. I move to my right and crouch next to the wall, my weapon still aimed directly down the hall. My team follows my lead and shrink towards any cover that they could and press themselves against the wall.

"It looks clear..." I announce to my team over the comm. "Chimera four, move up to that flight of stairs at the end of the hall. Chimera three Accompany him. Chimera two, on me, we're going to check this room. Maintain comm silence." I shut my comm link off and lift my hand up, then point to the end of the hall with my middle and forefinger. On command Chimera two and three move up past me, totally silent in the heavy nanosuits. when they are in position the acknowledgement lights on my Heads Up Display blink on and off once. I then glance over my shoulder at Chimera two, then jerk my head towards me, he nods and then moves up against the wall across from me.

My eyes go from him to the end of the hall, then to the large steel double doors on my side of the hall. I force my adrenaline down with a breath and then move forward, my head down and my right hand on the wall, my left gripping my G.45. Chimera two follows my lead and rolls over to the other side of the door silently. My right hand falls from the wall and comes up to clutch at the foregrip of my weapon, then I look to him, nod and then both of us pull away from the wall and kick the doors open in a synchronized manner. The doors fly open and we shed light on a sight that I certainly could have gone without seeing.

I reel backwards and throw my hand over my face, my stomach churning at the sight of the rooms contents. Chimera two follows suit. "GOD DAMN thats Disgusting!" He shouts over the comm. I couldn't really blame him for breaking comm silence, it really was utterly disgusting. Inside the room, on the floor, the walls, the ceiling... The beasts were mating... or... what I supected to be their mating process. Strange bits of light blue slime fly about and the noises that accompanied the actions of the creatures were the appitamy of disgust. I grind my teeth, glad that I and my team had on suits with a filtration system.

then I realize something, my eyes widening in suprise. We weren't being attacked right now, the mating in the other room between the creatures made them overall, oblivious to the world around them. "Chimera two." I call to him, barely able to stomach the sight as I look back into the room. "Activate the beacon." He shakes his head at the sight, realizing himself that the creatures were too distracted by their task at hand to notice them just outside the door. I raise my weapon and point it into the room, and at the same time I radio into the field headquarters just outside the city.

"This is Chimera team leader to HQ." There is several seconds of complete silence and then a familiar female voice crackles over the speakers. "This is HQ Chimera, good to hear from you again." I reply sullenly. "No time for chat HQ, we've got a big problem here, I have clearance for the M40 artillary, classication Mammoth." Her voice replies to my statement instantly. "Verification Code." I toss my words back at her. "Verification Code: Two Two Zero Alpha" Theres a few moments of silence and then she speaks. "ready the beacon Chimera team, fireworks will start an estimated.." Everything slows down as Chimera two stumbles backwards. A beast covered in blue slime had looke dup and was eyeing him, a hungry look in its eye. The beacon was in his hands, with a quick glance over at me he lowers his head, just as the beast screeches.

It's cry breaks through my helmet easily and cuts off the last of her words. "" Thats when Chimera two pulls the cord on top of the beacon and it lights up, then he lowers his shoulders and charges into the room. I reach out towards him for a second, then pull my hand away. The other chimera team members cry out over the comm to him, but I cut them off. "Chimera team, on me lets move!" I turn about and dash down the hall. My precautions had been well set because I could already hear the artillery shells screaming through the air.

I can also hear my team members bounding down the wall behind me, their strides huge, thanks to our suits. I shout over the comm at them. "Window! End of the hall!" Their acknowledgement lights don't flick on, but I knew they heard me. I dive forward when i'm less than fifteen feet from the window and I break through, not even feeling the glass break against my armor. I can hear the shells, ripping through the exterior of the building, penetrating easily to reach farther into the building, soon the detonator tips on the shells would ignite and tear the building apart.

I hit the ground as soon as they go off, the force of each shell exploding seems to multiply and throw me forward, causing me to roll uncontrollably towards the building across the street. I hit with a resounding crash and the armor absorbs most of the force from the impact. Chimera three and four were a bit closer to the explosion so they are propelled faster, into the wall above me. I lie there, feeling run down already, but I couldn't just lie there forever. I push myself up and glance over my shoulder at the holes in the wall and I see the pair of Chimera members standing as well.

Bits of debris and ash fall from the smoke clouds hanging over the city and come to rest on my shoulders and blanket my visor as I lift my eyes to the sky. Another member of Gone, and this mission wasn't even over yet. It's dark in the streets due to the smoke, blotting the sun out. The fires around me rage with a great intensity, spreading throughout the city, consuming it. I lift my hand, and look at my metallic palm silently. Everything seems to have slown down... A singed peice of paper floats down into the center of my palm, but it does not catch my attention.

I feel a hand clamp down on my shoulder and I slowly look back at whoever it was. The slimmer, shorter figure behind me told me instantly that it was Chimera 3. "... Sir." She said with a reassuring squeeze on my shoulder. "We've received new objectives..." The realization strikes me out of my daze and my gaze falls to the ground before I give my head a shake to clear my senses. "Right..." I mutter as I kneel down and grasp the handle of my G.45, my mind now racing over the subject of these new objectives.

According to the objectives now displayed on my helmets heads up display, they wanted us to head to the city's main hall, there we would dust off to head to the frontlines. Apparently there has been a major sighting of the beasts, approaching the massive military force assembled outside of the city. I kept my back to my sqaudmates as I went over the possibilties of a direct confrontation between our forces and those beasts. Perhaps with the heavy military equipment we had we could eliminate the threats from a distance.

The smoke around us begins to stir wildly as a prowler speeds over top of us, filled with troops. I can see several more as well, past the broken buildings and crumbled towers. Sounds of rapid gunfire ring out all over the city. So they decided to move us into the city to weaken the opposition so they could send in the regulars? Even now the regulars wouldn't win, they might put up a fight, but I knew that they would not win this battle. I grind my teeth at the ingorance of the generals, but I knew what I had to do. I looked back over my shoulder.

"... Both of you... Give me your knives." I ask after a moment of observation. They eye me from behind their visors before nodding and following orders. They hand me their knives and I turn to face the opposite direction, sliding the knives into my ammo belt. Then I strap my G.45 to my back tightly, drawing the knives again. "We have to get to the center... Follow behind me closely... And fire at will." They step up behind me and I tilt my head to the right, then the left, my neck cracking and popping beneath my armor.

My eyes close for a moment and I take a deep breath, then I speak over the comms. "Adrenaline Reserves now." My command is followed by a pair of acknowledgement lights flicking on and a sudden spike in my remaining team's vitals. I grin as a sudden fit of insanity overtakes me, wondering how I could come up with such a reckless plan, the odds were undoubtedly stacked against us. Though for some reason, I didn't care, as long as I took as many of them with me as possible, I couldn't care less.

I snap forward with great speed, flicking the knives in my hand, causing them to spin just beneath my palms, then I snatch them from the air before they can fall. My eyes set on the street ahead. The city hall was a good nine blocks distance from his current position. I can hear my squadmates directly behind me, working to keep up. A lone trooper runs into the intersection in front of us from the lane to the right. He's abandoned his weapon and is running for his life, lucky for us, thats just the direction we have to go.

I grip the knives tighter when I see a beast dash out from behind the cover of a building after the man. It's metallic looking skin is pockmarked, no doubt by bullets. It pays no mind to us as we dash down the street, focusing only on it's prey. That smirk widens on my face as I relaize how easily I could end this thing. I take action, throwing forth my right arm, tossing from it the knife that I was holding. It sails through the air precisely, and the blade sinks into the soft organic material just below the armored plating surrounding it's chest.

It screeches in pain and turns to face me as quickly as it can, but i'm already there. I'm jump up and slam my boot down on the armor surrounding it's neck, finding a temporary foot hold just before I pull my right foot back and kick at it's jaw. I kick so hard that it's head basically bursts on imapct, and bits fly off in the direction I kick. The body falls backwards and I step down, planting my feet so that i'm facing the direction I need to be going.

The man behind me, the trooper, falls to the ground, his eyes wide. He's whimpering, pathetically as well, in a way it sort of disgusted me. I sort of shrug and then activate a pick up signal within my suit. Soon there would be a transport here to pick him up. With that I eye the path ahead and then run at full speed down the street. If it was going to be as easy as that just now, we would have no problem reaching the evac point. Little did we know, that Evac point had also become an emergency evac area for all troops in the area.


End file.
